Starter arrangements of the kind referred to above as a rule comprise a pull-rope starter which includes a drum having the rope wound thereon. The rope must be pulled sharply and suddenly from the rope drum in order to obtain an adequate starting speed of the engine. This presents difficulties for persons having less physical strength since they are unable to yank the pull rope with sufficient force so that the engine driven via an overrun clutch does not reach the required starting speed.
In addition, electric starters are known which can be utilized in lieu of a manual starter device and operate on the crankshaft of the engine to be started via a gear multiplication. However, starters of this kind require considerable electrical power which can be made available independently of power mains only by means of appropriately large and heavy batteries.
With smaller batteries such as of the kind utilized in portable handheld tools, only a limited number of starting attempts are possible with an electrical starter. For this reason, it is desirable to supplement an electrical starter with a manual starter device for reasons of convenience and to ensure that the work tool can be made operational at the work location even if the batteries are exhausted.
In practice, only a limited number of work tools of a production series are equipped with an electrical starter which offers a high degree of comfort. It is therefore desirable to provide the electrical starter as an attachment so that the engine built into the work tool can be provided with a manual starter device as well as with a manual starter device combined with an electrical starter without the need for further modifications.